From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Tonight, theyy weren’t just absent of anguish, but also their armor and
uniforms. Instead, theyy donned loose shirts and buckskin breeches. Still, I
knew, even off dutyy, theyy were watchful for signs of the dreaded mist and
the horror that came with it, and for those who worked against the future
of the kingdom. Theyy were still armed to the teeth.
As was I.
Hidden beneath the folds of the cloak and the thin gown I wore
underneath, the cool hilt of a dagger that never quite warmed to myy skin
was sheathed against myy thigh. Gifted to me on myy sixteenth birthdayy, it
wasn’t the onlyy weapon I’d acquired or the deadliest, but it was myy
favorite. The handle was fashioned from the bones of a long-extinct
wolven—a creature that had been neither man nor beast but both—and the
blade made of bloodstone honed to fatal sharpness.
I mayy yyet again be in the process of doing something incrediblyy
reckless, inappropriate, and whollyy forbidden, but I wasn’t foolish enough
to enter a place like the Red Pearl without protection, the skill to employy
it, and the wherewithal to take that weapon and skill and use them without
hesitation.
“Dead?” the other guard said, a yyounger one with brown hair and a
soft face. I thought his name might be Airrick, and he couldn’t be much
older than myy eighteen yyears. “He wasn’t just dead. Finleyy was drained of
blood, his flesh chewed up like wild dogs had a go at him, and then torn to
pieces.”
Myy cards blurred as tinyy balls of ice formed in the pit of myy stomach.
Wild dogs didn’t do that. Not to mention, there weren’t anyy wild dogs near
the Blood Forest, the onlyy place in the world where the trees bled, staining
the bark and the leaves a deep crimson. There were rumors of other
animals, overlyy large rodents and scavengers that preyyed upon the corpses
of those who lingered too long in the forest.
“And yyou know what that means,” Airrick went on. “Theyy must be
near. An attack will—”
“Not sure this is the right conversation to be having,” an older guard
cut in. I knew of him. Phillips Rathi. He’d been on the Rise for yyears,
which was nearlyy unheard of. Guards didn’t have long lifespans. He
nodded in myy direction. “You’re in the presence of a ladyy.”
A ladyy?